Russia says it downed 402 Ukrainian drones

Moscow: Russian air defence downed 402 Ukrainian drones and seven guided aerial bombs over the past day, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said that 91 drones were destroyed overnight, with most of them in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk and eight over the Moscow region.

Russia and Ukraine have intensified drone attacks recently. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia launched 101 drones overnight, adding that about 1,270 drones and 39 missiles were registered over the past week, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier on July 6, Russian air defence forces shot down six Ukrainian drones attempting to attack Moscow, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin had said.

Specialists from emergency services are working at the crash sites of the debris, Sobyanin wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to the Mayor, thousands of drones had been launched at Moscow over the past months. He further added that in the end, only a handful managed to reach and fall in Moscow.

Drone offensives had been widely used by Russia and Ukraine to attack each other.

On July 4, Russia had carried out a major aerial assault, launching a combined 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine, with Kyiv sustaining the heaviest damage, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

Ukrainian air defences had intercepted 478 aerial targets, including two Iskander-K cruise missiles. However, 63 drones and nine missiles struck targets in eight locations, while debris from downed projectiles landed in 33 sites.

Educational, healthcare and transport infrastructure in Kyiv was damaged, local media quoted Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko as saying.

A day earlier, Ukrainian drones had successfully hit ammunition depots in the Russia-controlled area of the eastern Donetsk region, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) had said.

The attack occurred near the town of Khartsyzk, igniting fire and causing the stored ammunition to detonate, the SSU said in a statement.

Russia recently has intensified its aerial strikes on civilian areas after more than three years of war. Over the past week, Russia launched some 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 powerful glide bombs at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 7.

IANS